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It is tempting to initiate a marketing strategy without developing buyer personas, however the likelihood is you will miss valuable opportunities to speak directly to your target audience. In fact, personas are an integral part of any marketing strategy because they serve as reference points to your marketing objectives. They are bridges between your goals and your prospective parents as they offer essential information that affect every step of your marketing strategy. Without personas, you are more likely to revert to creating content around what you know best instead of what your prospective parents are actively seeking.

The internet is a vast place, and in the eyes of regular school marketers, the best way to get noticed by more prospects is to cover all possible avenues and use the most popular keywords, like ‘higher education’ or ‘Christian school’. The good news is that they can get their school featured in the search results whenever prospects type these keywords in the browser. The bad news is that so many websites use these keywords that their school will get featured at the middle or bottom of the search listing.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is an essential part of how we implement our online marketing activities. We often tend to associate SEO with technical activities that IT personnel would carry out. In fact, only about half of SEO focuses on the technical aspect; the other half is the creative aspect, and this includes a plan of action to consistently put out high quality content. Read on to know what SEO can do for your site and how to rank higher in three easy steps:

What are long tail keywords?Long tail keywords form part of the broader umbrella of Search Engine Optimisation and should be a focus of your school marketing efforts, as they help you to target your desired audience at a cheaper cost.

In the fast paced and highly visual world we live, recognisable, trustworthy and meaningful visuals have a huge impact on your school’s brand.

People don’t always have time to stop and read about your school, they want to know who you are at first glance. They snack on your stories and information, wanting instant knowledge of your message.

Research indicates that people recall 80 percent of what they see and hear, compared to just 20 percent of what they read and hear. It has also been noted that articles containing relevant images have 94 percent more total views than articles without images.

A few months ago, I wrote a blog on how to approach social media for your school — but we barely scratched the surface. This month, let’s look at some practical but essential social media guidelines for your school.

When it comes to school marketing, there are fewer things more shrouded in mystery than SEO (search engine optimisation). In this post, I want to pull away the curtain and show you how SEO for school marketers really works.

First of all, let’s begin with a quick definition. Search Engine Optimisation is the art and science of making your content visible and attractive to search engines like Google, Bing, or Yahoo! so that the people using them can find answers to the questions they’re going to the search engine to solve.

These search engines are made up of powerful networks of servers and complicated software that “crawls” from link to link, page to page, and media file to media file available on the Internet.

Look no further, this is your ultimate guide to navigating the social ecosystem. Okay it’s really just scratching the surface but it will give you a good grounding so you feel confident to face the book (ah thank you).

Here is a rundown of how to approach Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn for your school’s marketing. Read on for the ultimate social media cheat sheet for schools.

What is brand identity?Brand identity captures how your school brand is perceived by your school community and why they are motivated to choose your school. Your brand identity is represented in all the cleverly considered details: font, logo, brand colours, tone, newsletter layout or social media imagery. All these aspects speak to your parents, staff and students and give insight into your school values and personality to confirm to your community that you align with their values.

What you exhibit on your social media channels should reflect your school brand persona and be consistent with all other marketing activity. Social media, after all is an extension of your website.

Let’s hone in on the social media elements that will add value to your school’s brand: